Assad complains of heavy US pressure on Syria

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DAMASCUS - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has complained about being put under heavy US pressure and warned that the Middle East was going through a "dangerous" period, a communist party source said Monday.

In a meeting with leaders of the communist party, Assad said the Middle East had entered "a very dangerous period, more dangerous than the one marked by the Sykes-Piko accord," a participant in the meeting said.

Assad was referring to a secret agreement made in 1916 during World War I in which France and Britain carved up the territories of the Ottoman empire into what is today Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

He said Damascus was resisting "unlimited pressure" from abroad, without mentioning the United States by name, and said the Arab world and other countries understood the Syrian position and considered the pressure to be illegal, the communist party source said.

Middle East Online